Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tebow at SEC Media Day: Press Conference

"You know, there's a lot of leaders out there. But, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of good ones. So that's always been my dream and my goal, is to be someone like Danny Wuerful was to me, to be someone that a parent can say, Hey, this kid did it the right way. They can say to their kid, I want you to be like them. That's always been my dream and my goal more so than winning a trophy or winning a championship.

"So if it's cynical or whatnot, that's fine. If people don't believe it, that's fine. There's always going to be naysayers, people that are going to say it's fake. But that's fine because you can't control everybody. But I can control what I do, my attitude, how I approach the situation. So how I approach the situation is I want to do everything in my power that football gives me to influence as many people as I can for the good because that's gonna mean so much more when it's all said and done than just playing football and winning championships."

As great as Tebow is on the field, by all accounts he seems to be an infinitely better and more grounded person off the field, which is remarkable, given the spotlight he is under.

And, I should point out, he only directly mentioned "God" once in a couple thousand words worth of quotes.

This is one of the most fascinating things about Tebow: He is fervently religious. However, either by disposition or design, he does not overwhelm you with it. In fact, when he does mention it -- as he briefly did during the Heisman acceptance speech -- it feels strange.